The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued full guidance to the NHS in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in postneonatal children.

Description

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) (also known as extracorporeal life support) is indicated for respiratory or cardiac failure unresponsive to all other measures, but considered to have a reversible cause. Most children treated with ECMO are very seriously ill and its use is rare. ECMO may also be used following heart surgery to ease the transition from cardiopulmonary bypass.

ECMO is a temporary life support technique. It involves connecting the child's internal circulation to an external blood pump and artificial lung. A catheter placed in the right side of the heart carries blood to a pump, then to a membrane oxygenator, where gas exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place. The blood then passes through tubing back into either the venous or arterial circulation. Patients are given an anticoagulant, to prevent blood clotting in the external system. Bleeding is therefore an adverse effect. Others include blood infection and haemolysis (breaking up of blood cells).

Conventional treatment is maximal intensive care support without ECMO. Ventricular assist devices, which pump the blood externally but do not allow gas transfer, may be used in addition to standard ventilation, where circulatory rather than respiratory failure is prominent.

ECMO has been shown to improve survival compared with conventional management in babies under the age of 28 days with severe respiratory failure.

OPCS4.6 Code(s)

Procedure

SNOMED CT preferred term (concept ID)

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (233573008)

OPCS-4.7

X58.1 Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation

The NHS Classifications Service of NHS Connecting for Health is the central definitive source for clinical coding guidance and determines the coding standards associated with the classifications (OPCS-4 and ICD-10) to be used across the NHS. The NHS Classifications Service and NICE work collaboratively to ensure the most appropriate classification codes are provided. www.connectingforhealth.co.uk/clinicalcoding

SNOMED CT provides clinical terms for entry into the patient record to store clinical information relevant to that encounter. The mandated classifications (OPCS-4 or ICD-10) provide a method to collect and aggregate data to allow accurate and consistent data analysis.

The Clinical Classifications Service of the Health and Social Care Information Centre is the central definitive source for clinical coding guidance and determines the coding standards associated with the classifications (OPCS-4 and ICD-10) to be used across the NHS. The Clinical Classifications Service and NICE work collaboratively to ensure the most appropriate classification codes are provided. Clinical Classifications Service — Health and Social Care Information Centre